


On the Nature of Surrender (Or How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Let People Love Me)

by nichristi



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Found Family, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Polyamory, Recovery, Threesome - F/F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 12:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20705828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nichristi/pseuds/nichristi
Summary: Listen. This was supposed to be a drabble. This was not meant to absolutely consume my life this summer. But here we are.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Listen. This was supposed to be a drabble. This was not meant to absolutely consume my life this summer. But here we are.

As Paul dismissed his congregation for the last time, something healed in Broadchurch in a way that it hadn’t been able to in a very long time. Lives started to be lived communally again. People started to grasp their next steps toward change in really meaningful ways. For some, like Paul and Mark, that meant leaving Broadchurch and finding their places in the world. For others, like Alec and Daisy, it meant spending more time together and getting to know each other. 

For Beth and Ellie, it meant bringing their kids round to each other’s houses and spending just about every spare moment together. They spent so much time together, in fact, that Ellie’s dad went back home to his solitary retirement inside a month and Beth and Ellie settled into a comfortable routine that involved tea and dinners and taking the kids to school and alternating between whose house was the after school location depending on which one of them was working late on any given night. 

Beth started packing Ellie a lunch in the mornings and taking the kids to school and no one had done that for her since... since Joe. Ellie started greeting Beth with a kiss on the cheek every morning when she dropped the boys off- just a friendly kiss on the cheek, nothing more. Beth started slipping notes into Ellie’s lunches. Ellie kept all of them in her desk and looked at them in her spare time. 

One day when she was ribbing Hardy about one of the increasingly ridiculous blind dates that Daisy tried setting him up on, he finally snapped back, “You’re one tae talk, Miller, I’m not the one that keeps wee notes from my secret admirer in my desk.” 

And like an idiot, Ellie blurted out, “Who says it’s a secret?” and that was it. Hardy was on her case like the bloodhound that he was and didn’t stop pressing her until she finally admitted that she and Beth were practically raising their kids together and that she kissed Beth hello in the morning and Beth left her little notes in her lunch bag and maybe Ellie liked her as more than just friends. Ellie had never seen Alec Hardy happier in all the time she’d known him. He was practically beaming. Not that anyone outside the two of them and his daughter would be able to tell. 

That evening when Ellie picked up the boys, she stood on the front step like an absolute idiot for God knows how long until Beth stuck her head out the front door and asked if everything was okay. She had a key after all, she could just walk in like normal. But Ellie felt stuck there on the front step, staring at Beth and thinking, "I absolutely cannot fuck this up for either of us." 

"El?" Beth asked again. Ellie startled out of her thoughts and shook herself into action and went into the house for dinner. That night when the kids were halfway across the field, Ellie found herself stuck in the doorway again, not wanting to leave. "Ellie, did something happen at work today?" Beth kept probing and God, she was like a gentle Alec, wasn't she? Just as persistent and stubborn but unlike her partner, Beth had been raised with manners. Ellie turned to answer her, and a thought rose in her head, clear as anything. "Fuck it." She went for the full snog and that was that. 

They got married a few months later, in the direct center of the field between their houses. They both kept their surnames from their previous marriages out of pure spite. 

Both Ellie and Beth had made it a point after the trial to make their houses feel like home. Ellie and Tom redid the whole place and replaced all the furniture, trying to erase Joe from their lives. Beth made it a point to keep as many things the same as possible and just carry on as well as they could. When they first talked about moving, it was purely for practicality’s sake. Neither of them had anywhere near enough room for four kids and the occasional family get together. Later it became eminently clear that both houses had too many hard memories. So they sold their houses and moved into a large house just down the hill from Hardy (Which was purely coincidence, no matter what the gossips said). 

That worked out too. Chloe had befriended Daisy Hardy at the start of the school year and they had quickly become practically inseparable. Chloe had Daisy round to tea practically every day and she stayed overnight just as often as Tom and Fred did before Ellie and Beth got married. Even Tom went and hung out with them sometimes. Ellie thought maybe he had a bit of a crush on Daisy, but his grades were improving and it seemed he had finally learned his lesson after the Lucas boy was arrested so she let it be. At some point Daisy started dragging her dad with her for tea and Sunday Dinners and sometimes all eight of them would pile onto the truly massive plush couch that Chloe had insisted they buy when they all moved in together and watch telly. Ellie was shocked to find that for the first time in three years, she was absolutely content.

* * *

Alec had been alone for such a long time before coming to Broadchurch. He’d never admit it. He’d take it to his grave, but all the things he’d lamented about when he’d first got there had turned out to be for the better. The air, the neverending sky, the people with their stupid smiling faces- somehow, he had been dragged kicking and screaming into loving all of it. He’d laid his ghosts to rest here. He’d breathed new life here. He’d stumbled in hoping to just exist and found that he’d accidentally laid down roots instead. 

Daisy started dragging him to tea with Beth and Ellie a little after the Winterman case closed. It was awkward at first. Casual settings always were. But it was Ellie and Beth so it was a little easier. He knew how to talk to them. Knew where he stood. And Daisy and Chloe were quickly becoming best friends so he’d probably benefit from showing his face around the Latimer House a little more often. 

When Beth and Ellie finally got their acts together and tied the knot, it was the first time he remembered being absolutely happy. The whole town stood in the middle of the field and watched them commit themselves to each other. Standing there watching two people he considered friends, who’d been through so much more than anyone should ever have to deal with, and who truly deserved to be happy, officially put their pasts behind them was the second best day of his life.The day Daisy was born held first place in his life forever, but this was a solid second. 

Life settled into a routine quickly after the Miller-Latimers moved. Alec found himself willingly and without any arm-twisting whatsoever going down the hill, even without Daisy. He found himself calling on Beth and Ellie, checking Tom's homework and doting on Fred and Lizzy and generally… feeling like what Ellie called a Human Person. Beth was easy to talk to- probably the only person besides Ellie that he felt he could talk to at all. 

Still, he missed things. It was so hard to know where he stood sometimes and what cues to follow. The Mums, as he'd taken to calling them, were hugely forgiving in that respect, but that didn’t make it any easier. Somewhere along the line his instincts had gotten all bollocksed up. He knew when people were lying and cheating and intending to do harm because he'd practiced it. He'd studied it. But all the rest? When someone needed a hug, When someone was hurting and needed a break, when someone was happy, or sincerely wanting to spend time with him, he had absolutely no sense of it. He’d gotten marginally better about asking where the boundary was, but it was hard and sometimes he really missed the mark. 

Once, after Daisy and Chloe went off to Uni (The party they threw when they found out they’d both been accepted was massive), Alec got sick. He didn’t tell anyone because why would he? It wasn’t anything serious anyway, just a cold (or so he told himself). So he planned to hole himself up at his and Daisy’s for a few days and called out of work and texted Ellie that he was taking a couple personal days and he’d be back in town next week and could she give the kids his love?

And that’s all he thought he needed to keep The Mums off his back and the kids out of his hair while he downed cough syrup in his darkened house for a few days. 

He was wrong, of course. He went a little too hard on the NyQuil and woke up to find himself in the master bedroom of the big house with a humidifier and a hot cup of tea on Miller’s bedside table and Beth and Ellie sitting in the love seat under the window with equally withering and worried looks on their faces. All protest about how he was actually fine and could handle this because he was an Adult and this was Nothing Serious compared to his previous health problems and he just needed rest fell on deaf ears and he eventually resigned himself to a week of aggressive mothering and being lectured about how respiratory infections are Bad for People With Heart Problems, Pacemaker Be Damned and how he terrified his daughter when she dropped home to pick up an extra blanket and found him passed out in the living room. 

He felt awful about that. He asked if she was alright and could he see her and was actually relieved when Beth said she'd gone with Tom and the littles up to Mark and Paul's for the weekend. The pounding in his head actually subsided just a little knowing his daughter was in good hands. When he finally sat up in bed and called her, he leaned his head against the headboard and let her work out her anger on him. He deserved it after all. And he must be getting better at reading people’s emotions and cues, because he detected the high note of fear in Daisy’s voice as she laid into him. Scared child. He knew what to do with that, even if it actively broke his heart knowing that he was at fault. He did his best to control his breathing despite his sinuses and let a few hot tears slip out of his eyes as he apologized to his little girl and talked her down from the panic he'd caused. 

When he finally hung up, he drew his knees to his chest and propped his elbows on them, covering his face with his hands until he got back under control. He heard the door crack open just a little and groaned, “Please, Miller just let me be.” A few seconds later the door closed and he risked a peek through his fingers. Beth stood just inside the room, arms crossed, a worried look on her face that said she knew exactly what he was feeling. He closed his eyes and tipped his head against the headboard and braced himself for another lecture. Might as well get used to it. But Beth didn’t say anything. Just sat on the bed next to him and put a hand on his knee and he about had a heart attack right there, but it also just felt. Good. A few minutes later Ellie came in with a tray of tea for all of them and they both sat on either side of him and watched telly and they didn’t talk, which was nice. His throat hurt anyway. At some point Beth laid her head on his shoulder and Ellie reached behind him to rest her hand on Beth’s head and they all just kind of fell asleep like that. And that’s how they spent the weekend until he realized his daughter and the rest of the kids were going to come back home and he didn’t actually want to go home himself so he gently migrated himself to the big plush couch in the front room and hoped it didn’t hurt the Mums’ feelings.

The kids got home that afternoon and the littles piled all over him until Tom and Chloe peeled one off each and said ,"Uncle Alec has Germs! Careful! Let's go draw him a picture." And there stood Daisy in the doorway, a bit pale, looking at him like he might explode until he shoved himself upright and held out an arm and croaked out, "Hey, Darlin'." Daisy came and curled up next to him and wrapped her arms around his neck like she had when she was little and had a nightmare and he held her and apologized until she stopped crying. 

It was a harrowing experience for everyone involved, but eventually everyone's feelings and motives got hashed out and apologies were exchanged all around and eventually it came out that Mark and Paul had helped the girls take a week off school and Chloe decreed that they were all there to make sure he "didn't try anything" and for probably the first time in his life, Alec found that he didn't have anything to worry about and that was weird and unsettling. It worried him. Life had taught him a long time ago that if things were too comfortable, something catastrophic was probably just around the corner. Now though, with these people whose lives had been utterly destroyed in the last few years, maybe they all just deserved some peace for once. 

That week the older kids minded the Littles and helped Beth and Ellie make sure Alec stayed on the couch and drank his tea. Somehow word got round, as always, and the living room was filled with flowers and cards with well wishes for Alec and condolences for Beth and Ellie. On the whole, Alec much preferred Ellie’s worried tirades to everyone else’s need to hover. He knew her best anyway. Beth, on the other hand, waited until she knew for sure they were alone and pulled up a chair and her best ISVA training and talked him through how they were all there to support each other and part of that meant telling people when you were sick and not retreating every time something might worry his family. Alec didn’t argue- mainly because it was futile and also he’d lost his voice at some point during the week and it physically hurt to speak. But also because he wasn't exactly sure what to do with Beth's outright declaration that she considered him and Daisy a part of the family. Finally, though, he conceded that the women in his life were more stubborn than him by a long shot and let them fuss over him until he woke up one day almost a week later and found he could breathe clearly. 

After so much fussing he was absolutely exhausted and just wanted to sleep in his own bed for a while. So he pulled himself off the couch and left a note on the counter for the Mums that he'd gone home to sleep and not to worry, he’d be back down the hill tomorrow. He fell into bed and didn’t wake up until the next day and didn’t feel properly human again until he had a shower and a carton of soup one of the Mums must’ve left in the fridge for him. 

That night, Ellie and Beth brought him to bed with them and even though he’d slept more in the last week than he had in the last three years combined, he let them tuck him in despite some good natured grumbling and hold him close for the night. And the next night. And the next. 

When Alec first got to Broadchurch, when he and Ellie first started looking into Danny’s case and they hated each other, he'd told her that Trust was a Weakness. To a certain extent, he still believed that. Sort of. He still held firm on the fact that people were capable of anything given the right circumstances. That firm belief made him very good at his job. Now though, with this… arrangement? Relationship? Family? Alec’s definition of that statement expanded. People were still capable of anything given the right circumstances. Now that included the capacity for goodness. 

* * *

After Mark left town for good and Trish's Case was closed, Beth found her house became busier than ever. Chloe always had Daisy round for tea or homework or sleepovers or something and Ellie brought the boys by almost every weekday morning as she was rushing to get to the station. Somehow, her house had become the designated homework/ hangout/ babysitting house and she found herself actually looking forward to getting called out, as awful as that could be sometimes. 

Broadchurch was growing. With that came new stores on the High Street and new people moving in, and new homes being built, but it also brought more crime. Not so much that Broadchurch ever lost its sleepy tourist town reputation, but enough that Ellie started flying through her life without eating or stopping to take a breath and Beth worried she was becoming more desperate and brooding like her partner. She never sat still now, always on some case or other and she was always texting to see if she could drop the boys by before school and Ellie'd give her money for petrol but Beth always waved her off. 

Somewhere along the line, she started taking a page out of Ellie's book and expressing her concern through food. She packed a lunch for her one day and pressed it into her hand and Ellie looked like she was almost about to cry and Beth ached when she saw her face that close to crumpling. She wanted to pull her into her arms right there, but knew that if she did, Ellie'd never make it to work and resolved to sit her down for tea or wine or something after dinner that week and get it all out of her. 

That heart-to-heart turned out to be longer in the making than expected. But Beth kept packing Ellie lunch and Ellie would give her a quick peck on the cheek in the mornings and that should've felt weird. It should've felt like she was cheating or doing the kids wrong or something. But it didn't. It was normal and warm and that's what everyone needed after the last three years of in-fucking-sanity. There was still a look in Ellie's eyes sometimes that said she needed a little more so Beth put a little doodle on a sticky note one day and stuck it to her sandwich. 

Then one day, Ellie came for dinner before taking the boys home and stood on the front step just staring at the door. She stood out there so long Beth stuck her head out the door to make sure everything was alright. Ellie looked shaken and Beth braced for whatever had happened that day. She knew firsthand the kind of horrors her job brought. But Ellie shook herself out of it and came in for dinner and it was all fine, but Ellie kept… Staring. Which wasn't really unusual or unpleasant. They watched each other a lot these days. But tonight it felt like Ellie was looking into her soul. As she saw them out that night and Tom and Fred raced their way across the field, she asked one more time if Ellie was alright. "Seriously, did something happen at work?" 

At which point Ellie turned from where she was standing in the doorway and stared at her again with that look and the way the moon caught her hair and all.. Beth had to catch her breath. Ellie took a deep breath and said, "fuck it" and snogged her right there in the doorway. 

After that the routine didn't really change, but now who made lunches depended on whose house they woke up at. 

They both knew each other so well. And they'd both lost so much and had their lives ripped to shreds that Beth knew she didn't want to hurt Ellie. She'd said as much early one morning. "We've been through it, you and me and the kids. Never again, yeah?" 

It wasn't eloquent, but it didn't need to be. It was down to earth and sincere and a million times more meaningful than any promises Mark had tried to make in those last few years. Not that he hadn't meant them, but they were all grieving, Mark more deeply and privately than he ever let them see and in no condition to make promises he couldn't keep. Beth wrapped her arms around Ellie's waist from behind and hooked her chin over her shoulder. "Never again." And planted a kiss on her cheek. 

They got married a few months later and the whole town showed up. She hadn’t wanted a big do, but it had been kind of perfect, having it in the middle of the field and Paul was still ordained and he was dating Mark now so it was a little awkward but he was the only one that she wanted to marry them. Besides it was good everyone was there. Just that much more healing to happen to the area. She might’ve even seen DI Hardy (Alec, now that Daisy was over practically every day) shed a tear. Ellie told her that he’d been the one to give her that last push and she made a mental note to thank him for it one day. 

When Chloe brought Daisy round to tea a little before Trish's case closed, Beth could see she needed a friend and she was so incredibly proud of Chloe. Even more so after she heard about what had happened at school. When Beth found out about what had happened to Daisy and how Chloe had taken her under her wing, Beth almost burst from pride. With everything that had gone so wrong, Chloe was turning into the best person she knew. She might have been biased, but that didn't make it untrue. Soon, the girls were practically inseparable and Chloe went round to Daisy's just as often as theirs. So she figured she might as well settle in and reach out, parent to parent. 

She encouraged Daisy to bring her dad round and she dragged him along a few times, shoulders hunched a little awkwardly like he didn't know where the lines were. It was weird, seeing him like that. When they were out on the job or in court or any professional setting he commanded the room in a way that made you know he saw everything.

Anyway it was weird at first, seeing him outside work, even if it was just to do parenting things. She'd found him infuriating during the trial and sometimes just as bad during Trish's Case, but he was dedicated and Beth respected that. The more Daisy dragged her dad round to tea, the easier it was to like Alec Hardy. It helped that Ellie was absolutely immune to awkward conversations. By the time they moved down the hill from him, the awkwardness had almost completely disappeared and they'd started coming round to each other's places more often. She even started to consider him a friend. 

Then Chloe and Daisy got suspended. Some boys had made fun of Daisy for the pictures again and when Chloe stood up for her, they'd made a "Dead Boy's Sister" comment and they'd ended up decking a couple boys each who'd run to the teacher and ratted like little shits. All three parents showed up at the school at the same time and after hearing their kids' side of the story, the three of them had laid so hard into the headmaster that the boys were expelled and the girls ended up receiving formal apologies from everyone involved. After that, something changed in their dynamic. They'd always worked rather well together, but that had been, well, work. With that, all awkwardness between the three of them disappeared for good. They made copies of their keys for each other and the kids and soon Alec was actually willingly hosting Sunday dinner once a month. It was usually a takeaway or some obscene health food his doctor had prescribed, but it was the thought that mattered. 

One night, and Beth was convinced it was deliberate no matter what the kids claimed, she and Ellie found an acceptance letter to uni for Daisy on their kitchen counter. Then Alec started yelling for them outside. They peered out the window and saw him, shirt half unbuttoned, toothbrush in his mouth, waving a piece of paper and very nearly tripping on his way down the hill. They all rushed outside and right there in the middle of the field between their houses, they all found out that not only Daisy had got into Uni, but Chloe had too. Beth didn't even know she'd applied. 

The party they threw was massive. 

After they all moved the girls in at school, things were a lot quieter. They'd all been a bit worried that Alec would isolate himself after Daisy left, and Daisy herself had expressed some worries to them. But the littles and Tom still went up the hill and dragged him down when he and Ellie weren't working until all hours of the night and he did come down willingly for tea now. Beth hadn't been worried at all about it until Daisy came flying down the hill one afternoon, screaming her name. 

She was supposed to be at school, wasn't she? Beth put it out her mind though when she saw her face. Daisy was sobbing and babbling, terrified, and all Beth could make out was "I think he's dead." 

Beth's heart dropped and she grabbed Daisy's hand and ran back up the hill, feeling that numbness in her belly that she'd felt when she'd run all the way down to the beach to find Danny laying there. Oh God. She made Daisy wait outside and went in the house. Alec was on the floor, covered in bloo- no, not blood. Cough syrup. Beth's ears were pounding as she stepped around broken glass and carefully touched his neck. Relief flooded her as his pulse beat strong against her fingers and she called for Daisy. 

"He's okay sweetheart. Here, give me your phone." 

She called an ambulance and texted Ellie and Mark and not two hours later, he was discharged with a case of pneumonia and was delirious in the back seat of the car. Chances were he wouldn't remember any of this. Poor Daisy wasn't doing much better and Beth tried to keep talking just to fill the space. 

That evening was a wild ride full of getting Alec set up in her and Ellie's bed and arranging to have Daisy go up to Mark and Paul's for the weekend with the kids and trying to get the house set up and then she realized, Daisy hadn't moved from the doorway of their bedroom. She was shaking. Beth stopped everything and pulled Daisy into a hug and she finally crumpled. 

"He's okay, sweetheart. The doctor said he'd be fine with some rest." 

"He promised he'd be okay before we left. He promised. And he was just lying there, I only wanted a blanket…" 

"Shhh, shhh…" Beth rubbed her back and stood there with her until a car door slammed and Ellie came rushing into the house, absolutely furious. She stopped short when she saw Beth and Daisy and Beth gestured to the kitchen in a silent plea for tea. Ellie's face hardened and Beth knew then and there that if the pneumonia didn't get him, Ellie would kill him herself that night. Beth moved Daisy to the couch and pressed a cup of tea into her hand and let her know that Mark had agreed to take her and the kids for the weekend, "we don't want you to get sick, honey. Ellie and I'll look after your dad, okay?" 

Daisy nodded and Beth charged Tom with looking after her on their way up and was sure Ellie'd do the same on the say to the train station. 

Beth remembered back to when she really forgave Ellie for her husband's actions. It was in the courthouse after Mark had testified and she'd lost it in the hallway and Ellie'd come and held her like an absolute angel and promptly gone and dressed down Tom in the lobby and it was right then and there that Beth finally saw that she was just as much a victim as the rest of them and had lost just as much as they had, up to and including her son, even if it was only temporary. Ellie had a long fuse and was a cheerful soul for the most part, but like anyone, there was a breaking point and Beth loved watching Ellie's righteous fury rain down on whoever had wronged her or her family. 

That night after they'd packed the kids off to Mark and Paul and set up the humidifier and made enough tea for an army, they sat together in the love seat under the window in their room watching Alec sleep. Ellie was tense next to Beth and she remembered how she told her he'd gone in for surgery and texted her when he got out. How he'd almost died chasing down Joe Miller at the hut one night. How he'd texted her that morning saying he was taking a couple personal days and going out of town and she hadn't actually thought anything of it. 

So when Alec finally stirred, Beth sat back and watched happily as Ellie laid into him for terrifying his daughter and how dare he lie to them and Upper Respiratory Illnesses Are Bad for People With Heart Conditions, Alec! And he just seemed to resign himself to his fate and looked properly ashamed of himself. He didn't really remember the hospital and looked exhausted still and sounded even worse, but they gave him his phone so he could call Daisy and gave him some space and went and talked about it on the couch. 

"How, after everything, does he not think he can ask us for help?" Ellie raged. "Besides Daisy we're the closest he's got to family. If he's sick, he knows he can tell us that! After all these years!" 

"Well we'll just have to prove that he can, won't we?" Beth countered. Right then and there, they both knew what they wanted. 

Beth poked her head in the room when she heard Alec get off the phone with Daisy. His breathing was even more ragged and he looked positively haggard, even with his face in his hands. 

"Please, Miller just let me be." 

She couldn't really think of anything to say so she just waited. When he did finally look at her, he looked so alone. She sat on the edge of the bed and rested her hand on his knee. God, he looked so pitiful and desperately lonely. So she shifted to sit right next to him, pressed right there next to his side. And Ellie did the same and it just felt right, both of them there on either side of him, grounding him. They stayed like that all weekend. 

When the kids got home it felt like something had slotted into place. The eight of them all there for the whole week. 

It was Beth that noticed Daisy was still a little shaky so one night she sat her down in the back garden and they had everything out. She made it clear that they all considered her and Alec a part of their family and that from now on she wasn't alone in looking after him. Daisy looked relieved and she admitted that she'd felt like they were all family too and she and Chloe and Tom had been hoping for them all to get together for months and that absolutely shocked Beth. 

It wasn't really a surprise when she got home from a client meeting later that week to find a note on the counter and the blankets folded on the couch. He'd looked a little strung out from all the attention. Beth put some soup in his fridge and checked his temperature and went about disinfecting the house. 

He showed up for dinner the next day and looked a million times better and also a bit sheepish, like he didn't know where he stood with her and Ellie all of a sudden. Well, that needed to be fixed immediately. They took him back to their room that night and made sure he knew exactly how they felt about him. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chloe missed her dad. She’d spent a long time hoping against hope that her parents would somehow be able to work things out and for awhile they had. But then Dad- who’d seemed like he was doing so much better than the rest of them after Lizzy was born- took a nosedive. It took her awhile after he’d landed in the hospital to understand. But once she did, God it was so obvious in hindsight. And she understood. But it was three years ago now and he seemed to be the only person that hadn’t been able to just let Danny lie and try to move on. It hurt to think it, but somewhere along the line, Dad had looked away from his girls and tried to follow his son into the grave. After that, part of Chloe realized that he would never be happy in Broadchurch and was quietly relieved when he and Mum sat her down and told her they were going to get a divorce but that it didn’t mean they didn’t love her or each other. She believed them. They were both so… tired. The weight on their family lifted the second they signed the papers. 

Dad still looked lost the first time she visited him after he moved from Wessex. When Paul Coates showed up on the doorstep one afternoon looking a little forlorn and just as lost, Chloe saw Dad perk up a little bit. And Paul looked just as happy to see Dad (and Chloe, to be honest) so even though he said he didn’t want to intrude, she insisted he join them for chips and ice cream. She pretended not to notice their shoulders knocking together every now and then. When she visited the next time, Paul was still there and she Definitely didn’t say anything about ducking into the bathroom and seeing them holding hands in the kitchen. When she went home all she told Mum was that Dad seemed like he was happier. And that was true. 

Mum and Ellie seemed to fall in love just as naturally as Dad and Paul. Ellie Tom and Fred had practically been family since Danny was born. She’d never tell them to their faces, but she considered the boys little brothers and she could talk to Ellie about anything. After Dad left, it was a few months of Mum dropping the boys off at school and coming round to tea and seeing Ellie kiss Mum on the cheek and Mum slip notes into her lunch bag before Chloe realized she hadn’t seen either of them that happy in years. 

Mum and Ellie talked to her about getting married first. Dad and Paul followed a few months later. Both times, Chloe’s answer was a resounding Yes. 

Earlier that year, when the rumors and photos about the new girl had started flying around the school, Chloe knew exactly what she needed to do. She'd been there after all. To a certain extent that's where she always would be. She'd always be the girl whose brother died and couldn't finish school like everyone else. She knew DI Hardy was always working, especially on this case Mum had, and she knew exactly what she'd needed when it felt like no one was there. So she walked to the nice little house on the cliff and knocked on the slider and offered Daisy a shoulder and a ready ear. 

It was easy, being her friend. Daisy was cool and desperate for company and terrified of what would happen when her dad found out. It occured to Chloe that she knew DI Hardy better than his own daughter did, which was a bit sad, but it was easy to soften the blow when they waited for him to come home one day. 

And after that afternoon, she made sure Daisy knew she wasn't alone. She had her over for tea and came round when Mum and Ellie and DI Hardy were out working and soon they were best friends. Daisy helped her study for the exams she still needed to retake. It became normal for them to just alternate houses on the weekends for sleepovers. Once, they surprised Ellie and Hardy at the station with ice cream late one night and Ellie had never looked more grateful than when she and Daisy walked into the office with four spoons and a tub of chocolate. Even Alec looked less cross than usual as they demolished the tub and distracted them from actual detective work. 

When they got home, Daisy noted the look on her dad's face when he looked at Ellie and Chloe said he looked like that at Mum too and it took them a few minutes to puzzle it out. When they did, Chloe's eyes widened and Daisy dissolved into a fit of giggles. 

Their parents'... relationship? Became their favorite topic of discussion. Then one night, Tom was doing his homework with them at the Hardy Kitchen Table (it was, objectively, the best homework spot) and the girls were gossiping and Chloe heard Tom mumble something under his breath. They prodded him until he finally blurted out that obviously their mums and Alec had a massive crush on each other. Just like that, they were all on the same page and set about deliberately manipulating their parents into actually admitting their feelings for each other. But how to do it?

Chloe was the one that suggested the study plan. Daisy was the one that noticed the habits their parents had formed. Tom was the one that relayed the rumors going around town and down at the school. They all knew this was for the long haul and knowing their parents, they had better not rush things or risk catastrophic consequences. 

It was Daisy that asked if Chloe had ever thought about Uni. She hadn't really considered it much before then but then again, she hadn't been sure she'd ever finish secondary. Then Daisy had brought out the computer and asked if she wanted to apply too and Chloe had said sure, why not. A couple months later, two letters arrived and it was a good thing Alec and Ellie were on a case and Mum was out with a client because Chloe hadn't actually told anyone but Tom that she'd applied (she didn't want to jinx it). 

It didn't hit her until later that she'd have to tell her mums about it. And what was Dad going to say? She texted Daisy and Tom. It was Tom that suggested they just leave the letters out for their parents to find. Then Daisy said what if we left them at each other's houses and see what happens. And Chloe thought that was amazingly diabolical and sneaky and they placed each other's letters in suitably casual yet conspicuous places where at least one parent would find them. They kept watch from their respective bedroom windows that night. 

The resulting ruckus was suitably impressive. 

They all looked out the window to see Alec Hardy running down the hill with his shirt half undone and a toothbrush in his mouth, waving a piece of paper and yelling for Miller and Beth. It was all Chloe and Tom could do to keep their faces straight. 

Ellie and Mum stumbled out of the house to meet Alec and the kids followed close behind (but not too close). It was the first big family group hug. 

The party was massive. 

Dad and Paul came down that weekend and they had a massive do in the back garden. It felt like the whole town was there (maybe they were). 

The rest of the spring and summer leading up to actually leaving was a whirlwind. Chloe found she looked forward to studying and graduating. The college wasn't too far from Dad's place and she was looking forward to more time with him and Paul. And Daisy would be welcome there of course, but Alec had made her promise to come visit at least once a month (he was rather lonely). 

And before they knew it, the whole Miller/Latimer/Coates/Hardy clan was seeing them into a tiny dorm room and taking them to dinner and kissing them goodbye. 

Chloe loved uni. She loved the independence and the people and the bad food and having Daisy there. Then one weekend Daisy went home to pick up a blanket and look in on Alec and that night she got a call from Dad saying Alec was sick and Daisy had found him on the floor and could she come by tonight and make sure Daisy was okay? She dropped everything. When she got there, Daisy was on a call with her dad tearing him a new one for scaring her like that. Tom said, with a pointed look, that Alec was resting in their Mums' bedroom for the weekend. Despite her worry for her best friend, Chloe felt a thrill in her chest and knew for a fact that their plan had worked. Then Dad and Paul sat them down and said it would probably be a good idea if they took a week off and helped them email their professors. 

When they all got home on Monday, Chloe was a little disappointed to see Alec laid up on the couch and not in her Mums' room, but baby steps. Chloe spent the next week fetching tissues and tea and throat lozenges and extra pillows and minding the littles with Daisy who divided her time between them and snuggling with her dad on the couch. 

They went back to school that weekend and Chloe started introducing Daisy as her sister.

* * *

Broadchurch always had been and always would be a close knit community, no matter who showed up with what baggage and who left. The townspeople were fiercely loyal to their own, including the local threesome and their collective five kids. And the old plumber that ran off with the Reverend (even if that’s not exactly what happened). 

What had happened was Paul tried things out for a while in a new parish in a new town. But the issues with the church in Broadchurch were the same issues that were plaguing the Church At Large and it didn’t take too long for him to realize that the Ministry just wasn’t where he could do the most good. The thing is, he didn’t regret leaving Broadchurch. He loved the people there like family, but his place wasn’t there anymore either and for the second time in his life, Paul Coates didn’t know where he belonged or what to do… and that scared him. 

He found himself in the city, walking down the street thinking about having a drink for the first time in well over five years. He prayed desperately for some answer to the loneliness and lack of purpose eyes fixed on the pavement in front of him, when a man stepped in his path. Paul only barely dodged out of the man’s way and tossed a careless “Watch It” over his shoulder when a hand caught his arm and spun him. 

“Paul?”

There, like an answer to his prayers, stood Mark Latimer. All thought of a drink evaporated from his mind and all he could think was _ thank God, someone who Knows. _

“Alright, Paul?” 

He heard himself say, “Alright, Mark,” and kept staring. 

Mark dropped his gaze to his shoes awkwardly and asked, “How you been?” 

“Pretty shit, if I’m being honest.” It felt good to say it to someone besides the Almighty. Mark huffed a laugh and let go of his arm, which Paul found he was unhappy about. 

"Yeah, same," Mark replied with a look of relief about as strong as Paul felt. "You hungry?" 

They got chips and talked til late. Mark offered to drop him home and Paul took him up on it. From there they started meeting up, talking. Mark had left his old plumbing business to Nige when he left and was in the midst of setting up a new one. Paul offered to help with his books if he needed and soon they were going into business together and Paul was volunteering for various causes on the side while he tried to find exactly what he was meant to be doing with his life. 

One night Mark told Paul about his stint in a Recovery center. Paul told Mark about AA. Paul told him about how desperate he'd been when they first bumped into each other and Mark replied that he'd been feeling the exact same. That night they made The Plan and they sort of felt like teenage girls making a pact but they both needed an anchor. No matter what was going on, if one of them was having a bad day, they'd come find the other. It was something they found they could stick to. After all, Mark had messed it up with Beth and the girls and Paul had never really had anyone like that in his life before. He'd always been the shepherd. The supporter. He'd only ever needed God to lean on. But now they had each other in a place where no one really knew them and it was nice. 

One particularly bad evening, Paul found himself on Mark's doorstep and Chloe answered. He almost ducked out and offered to come back later, but Chloe was nothing if she wasn't the spit of both of her parents and twice as stubborn as both and she made it clear she wasn't having his shit. So Paul let himself get roped into chips and ice cream with Chloe and Mark and despite the weird intrusion on Father- Daughter time, it turned into an excellent evening. 

Then his lease expired on his flat and Mark offered to let him crash with him and it turned out that living with Mark was easy. And even more, he loved when the girls came up to visit and bring word of life back in Broadchurch and spread gossip about their Mum and Ellie. He loved that when Mark had a bad night he'd wake up Paul and they'd sit on the couch and deal with it however they needed to. And if Paul started to feel that he was getting more and more lost, he could put a hand on his shoulder and hold on until he felt grounded again. 

When Beth texted him and asked him to officiate her and Ellie's wedding, his first instinct was to jump at it. He didn't even think that it be weird. When he ran it past Mark, he looked truly happy for them. Paul was well aware that how this was all playing out wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination. But he also knew that Mark and Beth had worked out their frustrations and jealousy and cruelty and grief and all the things that come with broken marriages long before they'd actually signed the divorce papers. When they had finally done it, Mark and Beth's relationship improved dramatically. 

There was absolutely no awkwardness at the wedding from anyone who mattered. It was a magical day, probably the happiest that Broadchurch had seen since Danny died and there wasn’t a dry eye on that whole field. Even DI Hardy was smiling and laughing. In public. He suspected there was something there, but it wasn’t really his place to bring it up. Anyway, he had more pressing matters on his mind. 

Before they left for home that weekend, they stopped by the Chippy and sat on a bench on the dock, stealing chips out of each other’s identical packets. Paul had been carrying a ring in his pocket for weeks, just waiting for the right time to spring it on Mark but also not wanting to bring down Beth and Ellie’s day. He’d done enough weddings to know that it was poor class to ask for someone’s hand on someone else’s big day. But now it was just the two of them on the pier and if he could play it right…

He slipped the ring into Mark’s packet with as much sleight of hand as he knew and picked the best chip from the paper, just to antagonize him. Mark huffed a little laugh and held up the best chip from Paul’s own packet. He guffawed and tossed it into his mouth and went back to his own chips. 

And did a double take. There, on top of his greasy wax paper, sat a ring identical to the one he’d just slipped Mark. 

It took a few minutes for either of them to say anything. In fact all Paul could really think to do was pull Mark into a kiss right there in front of God and all the beachgoers. When they finally pulled apart, Mark snorted a laugh and said, “Well, it looks like we’re on the same page then.” 

“Looks like it,” Paul said, dissolving into slightly hysterical laughter and fishing the greasy ring out of his chips. 

They stopped at the courthouse on the way home and shut the plumbing business up for a week. 

Paul never thought he'd actually have kids. Somehow, he ended up with five. The girls went to Uni pretty close to their place and saw them almost every weekend. Tom came up to visit (get his ears boxed) a couple weekends a year. And once after what Beth described as The Plague Incident, DI Alec Hardy brought the littles up for a day. It was weird. Ellie was busy with her dad (took a turn over the winter) and Beth was on call with a client and couldn't leave town. Anyway, they'd all talked about the three of them before and were all fine with it in theory. They’d even visited Broadchurch for the odd birthday since they’d all gotten together, but it's still awkward when a man who once accused you of sexually assaulting an eleven year old (your husband's eleven year old as a matter of fact) pulls up with your stepchildren in the back seat of his car. 

It's even awkwarder when your husband comes home and finds you having milk and cookies with said man on the couch. And when two of the three of them are emotionally traumatized men with shared history (and both have had sex with the same woman), dinner that evening is… tense. Not bad tense, just. Tense. 

Then Lizzy crawled into Hardy's lap with crayons and a sheet of paper after dinner and Paul thought Mark might toss the man out of the house until she solemnly informed them all that she and Alec were making something for Daddy and he was "Not to look because it was a surprise". Alec and Mark met each other's eyes directly for the first time that day and dissolved into a fit of laughter. 

* * *

Mark had never dealt with things in a linear fashion. In reality, most people don't, but Mark never felt like he was ever on the same page with anyone- especially after Dan. While everyone else was grieving, he was going back to work. While everyone else went back to work, he fell back into the loss. It was like he was on a different road entirely to the rest of his family and friends and it wasn't until he left Broadchurch that he ever felt like that might be an okay thing. 

The divorce went through pretty easily and it honestly was like he was walking out of a locked room and into the open world. And he did it with a clean conscience. He and Beth had given it all they had to fix things and it felt good to put down their tools and admit when something wasn’t worth dying for. Mark admitted himself into a recovery center for a few weeks and for the first time since Dan had died, the therapy didn’t feel absolutely ludicrous. Still, it wasn’t an easy road and the night he ran into Paul had been a hard one and he found himself, for the first time ever, desperate enough to actually pray to the God that had taken his whole life away from him. When Paul appeared right out of the Friday night crowds looking just as lost and just as desperate, even Mark had a minute where even he thought that maybe, just maybe, there was someone out there listening and they’d decided to send them a lifeboat. 

Mark didn’t question it and didn’t think on it too much, mainly because he’d been so adamant about his contempt for the Almighty for so long. But Paul brushed past him in the crowd without so much as looking up, so Mark reached out and grabbed him and didn’t let him go. In that moment, Paul was all he had, and in that whole big city full of people that didn’t know him from Adam, it was nice to have one person in the world that knew where he’d been.

It took a lot to accept that they were finally moving on with their lives, but it helped that Mark had Paul and Beth had Ellie. They were in good hands.Beth seemed happy that Mark and Paul were there for each other. And Ellie got Beth in a way that Mark never really had even when they were happily married. 

When they came to visit for birthdays and such, more often than not Chloe had Daisy Hardy over and Daisy dragged her dad down the hill for tea. Hardy was as prickly as ever, but it was clear he had a soft spot for Daisy (and Ellie. And Tom and Chloe and the rest of them). So it didn't come as too much of a surprise when Beth texted Mark one day to say that Alec had taken Ill and was recuperating at theirs so they wouldn't be able to make the weekend trip they'd planned but she would still send the kids up and would he mind having Daisy as well? 

And Mark found he should've been jealous or angry or something (and would've been if he'd stayed in Broadchurch) but he wasn't. He should've hated Alec Hardy for taking what he'd had (and more) but he didn't. He still had his girls (And Tom and Fred now) and he had Paul. And he found he felt more grounded than he had in well over ten years. And the family kept growing and Mark found that delighted him. Daisy was a delight and the way she talked to her dad on the phone when he called to apologize for scaring the living shit out of her made Mark think that it would all be okay. 

A few months later when he brought the kids up, of course it was awkward. But it wasn't nearly as bad as Paul made it out to be later, the way he was hovering. When Lizzy crawled into Alec's lap and demanded they draw a picture for Daddy, Mark couldn't do anything but laugh. Alec Hardy was family now and that only made things better.

  



	3. Chapter 3

It took Tom the longest to warm up to the whole situation. Mark and Beth had basically been an Aunt and Uncle to him for his whole life. He didn't really like Reverend Paul at first but that was mostly because he always had detention with him. Hardy was the guy that arrested his dad. Even after his mum had put his head right in the courthouse, he still found himself missing him even though he hated him too. Hardy had a similarly conflicted image in Tom's head. He was a hero. His mum liked him even if she didn't say it outright, and he had been nice to him when he'd had to talk to him about Danny. But he'd taken his Dad from him too, and he was sneaky, and he tried to hide stuff. 

When Beth and his mum got married, Beth came and talked to him about it and didn't really ask if it was okay, but wanted to make sure he knew she loved him and his mum and Fred too. He knew it. He saw how they looked at each other. Still, it all happened really fast. 

It was like a big sleepover at first. It was the same when they went to visit Mark and Paul. Tom had missed having a proper dad and now he had two, even though it took some getting used to. He and Mark had had a few heart to hearts since the trial and all was finally worked out, but it was still weird, being your dead friend's brother. Anyway it was nice seeing the adults around him actually happy for probably the first time since Danny. He still struggled in school and was a frustrated teenage boy whose parents worked all the damn time, but he didn't feel so totally alone anymore. It wasn't just him and Fred and kind of Grandad. Maybe it never had been. But now it was...official. 

When Daisy started coming over, Tom kind of had a crush on her. He'd seen the picture. Everyone had. And with the girls in the videos that Michael Lucas had shared with him, it- well, part of it hadn't really been real. But he knew Daisy. He cared about Daisy. And he saw what it did to her in real life. 

He apologized to her one morning on the way to school without even thinking. He just- came right out and said he was sorry that people had been so mean to her. And he… meant it. She had smiled at him and bumped his shoulder and it felt… nice. 

But Daisy was a whole three-four years older than him and saw him as a little kid and Tom wasn't sure how to handle that. There was a part of him, the part that his Mum said was like his dad, that said he could make her see he liked her. But time away from his dad- and time with his mums and new sisters and Paul and Mark and even DI Hardy was changing how he saw people. How people interacted with each other. And how his dad was just- wasn't right and how that might hurt Daisy. And Tom found that he actually cared if Daisy got hurt. So he kept it to himself. 

When DI Hardy started coming round more often, it was a gradual thing. He'd come by to get Daisy and Mum would ask him to stay for tea or dinner or something. Daisy and Chloe were best friends at this point so he'd say yes sometimes. Or, after they'd moved, Chloe'd be up the hill and Beth'd ask him to run up and let them know dinner was ready and there was a place for all of them if they wanted. Sometimes all three of them would traipse back down the hill with him. Sometimes it was just Chloe. When Mum and DI Hardy had a big case Daisy would crash with them or Mum and DI Hardy would be up the hill covering his walls in maps and pictures and butcher's twine. And Beth would run them up some dinner but tell them not to go up the hill because it was evidence.

Eventually it became like when his family lived across the field from the Latimers. Everyone was always in and out of each other's houses and it was second nature to go up the hill if the girls were getting to be too much and he just needed to be around another guy for awhile. DI Hardy wasn't cool like Mark. He didn't play FIFA and didn't know anything about skateboarding. But he'd answer any question Tom asked as honestly as he could- and if he couldn't, well he was honest about that too. One day he asked about Danny. One day he asked about Sandbrook cuz he heard his mums talking about it once. And he knew all kinds of things about crime and pathology and puzzles and forensics. And unlike his mum, who would only tell him things if he needed to know them, DI Hardy would walk him through stuff and why it was wrong and what kinds of things to look for. He was always careful about what he said, always soft-spoken, always honest about when or why he couldn't talk about things. 

Tom saw a familiar look in his face. It was a look he saw in the mirror after Daisy would leave. DI Hardy had a crush. And he wanted to figure out who on. 

It finally clicked one day when he was listening to them gossip while he was working on maths one afternoon and he mumbled his revelation that they were all in love with each other under his breath. Chloe, of course, heard it and after that they were bound together on a quest to do whatever they could to get all three of their parents together.

It was a little weird to think about, but they had four parents already, what was one more? The look on Daisy's face when she said she wanted her dad to be happy and thought that maybe he could be with their mums shot down pretty much any argument against it. Mum and Beth were both happier with him around, Tom could see it. And DI Hardy was happier too. 

Tom made it a point to go up the hill as often as he could to "study with the girls". They worked out a system. If more than two of the kids were in one of the houses, the odds of at least one parent gravitating to the other house escalated.

It wasn't really an intended side effect, but in the process, everyone's grades improved and both Chloe and Daisy decided they wanted to go to Uni after they finish school. So they worked on that at DI Hardy's kitchen table and "accidentally" left Chloe's acceptance letter at Hardy's and Daisy's down the hill. 

When the girls finished school and got ready to leave, Tom asked DI Hardy if it was still alright if he went up the hill to study. He'd gotten used to it after all and there was something about the light at the Hardy Kitchen Table that helped with focus. Hardy reminded Tom he had a key to his place and it'd been awhile since he was just his mum's boss so he should make like the literal rest of the family and just call him Alec. Tom asked why when he doesn't even like his own first name. Alec just said, "It grows on you. Like Broadchurch." 

It wasn't too long after the girls left for uni that fall that Tom came home after school on a Friday to see Beth holding a crying Daisy in the front room and his heart dropped. He thought maybe something awful had happened to Chloe or something. But no. Alec had passed out up the hill and Daisy had swung home to pick up a blanket and found him. Beth asked if Daisy could come with the kids to their Dads' house this weekend while she and his mum "dealt with it". Despite the latent fear in Daisy's face, they both locked eyes and Knew their plans had worked. 

When they got to Mark and Paul's with Daisy and the littles, Tom thought Daisy would probably go back to school that week. Instead Paul helped her email her professors about an illness in the family and they called Chloe and see if she can do the same. Chloe was there that evening when Alec called Daisy to apologize for scaring her. Daisy went outside for the call, but they all could hear how hard she laid into her dad for scaring her like that. And despite themselves and the situation, they all smiled. If she were truly worried for him now, she'd have gone quiet. But Alec was in the excellent care of their mums and had probably gotten a few good talkings to at this point and Daisy going hard meant Alec was going to be okay and probably still be there when they got back Sunday night. And he was.

* * *

Daisy Hardy learned a long time ago that police work was awful. It had torn her family apart the first time and almost killed Dad a few times and she'd gotten into more than a few fights because her dad was the Worst Cop in all Britain. Well. The point was, she loved her dad but he had disappointed her a lot lately and she kind of hated Broadchurch because of it. And he spent almost all his time with his partner on some case. She wanted to like Ellie Miller. She did. It seemed like Dad was happier around her. But she didn't really get the chance to be around her and make up her own mind about it, did she? 

Then those boys had stolen her pictures and tossed them around the school and Dad was busy with a case and she was just. So. Lonely. So she bought a train ticket for a couple weeks out and hoped she'd be able to escape all this somehow. Then Chloe Latimer knocked on the door and made her tea and let her cry and for once in her life there was someone who got it. She even talked with Dad for her when he came home. Softened the blow. In that moment, Daisy knew she had a friend- even if it was just for a couple weeks. 

After that, Dad seemed to realize he had kind of been an ass. They did things together. He fumbled his way through conversations and begged her to stay when she told him about the ticket. On the drive to the train station, she hadn't wanted to point out the boys, but Dad was a detective and he Knew. She was amazed when he stopped the car right there in traffic and ripped them apart on the street corner. And then ripped up her ticket. It was the first time she had actually watched him stand up for something he loved.

Chloe started having her round to tea. That was how she finally ended up meeting DS Miller ("Ellie, please dear") and her boys. Daisy liked her immediately. She was bubbly and fun but at the same time took absolutely no bullshit from anyone. And Mrs Latimer (Call me Beth sweetheart) was really nice and was a good listener just like Chloe. And Daisy wasn't quite sure how to approach it, but she thought maybe she had finally gotten some friends. 

She invited Chloe over to study or hang out and soon they were spending just about every spare moment with each other. She's the one that told her Dad one night that she thought DS Miller (Ellie!) had a crush on Mrs Latimer. Their wedding a few months later was supposed to be small. They held it in the center of the field exactly halfway between their two houses and of course the whole town showed up and Daisy thought it was the most romantic thing ever. Then she saw Dad's face as the brides kissed and saw the first look of genuine happiness she'd seen on his face in… years. 

Chloe knocked on the back door a couple weeks later with the news that they were moving. Daisy tried not to let the initial hurt show on her face- of course they were moving! Ellie and Beth's houses were too small for four kids. She swallowed hard and hoped they'd still be in walking distance and asked "where?" Chloe pointed down the hill to the big old house where there were two big moving vans and Ellie and Beth supervising the unloading. Daisy shrieked with excitement and grabbed her hand and they ran down the hill. 

After that, Daisy made it a point to try and drag Dad to tea at the Miller-Latimer's as often as she could. He played the aloof Scot very well, but even the most antisocial people needed at least a couple friends. 

Chloe was smart. Smarter than she thought. And Daisy was going off to uni next year- it was the one thing both of her parents absolutely agreed on. And Daisy desperately did not want to leave without Chloe. They were best friends at this point. And anyway, Chloe might always talk about how she isn't smart enough for Uni, but Daisy knows she is and knows that Chloe wants to do something great when she grows up so she pushes the laptop over to her when she's done applying. 

"C'mon, if you don't get in then you don't get in. But you won't know unless you apply!" 

Chloe caved and applied and that was that. 

Then Daisy realized that Dad would be alone again when she left. That was unacceptable. She set about setting him up on as many dating sites as possible and he went on a few but he always came back from them early and miserable. She lamented about it to Chloe one night when Dad and Ellie were on a case. "Who's gonna make sure he's okay after we leave?" as if she didn't know that all the Miller-Latimers had keys to their place. Chloe just went to the freezer and pulled out a tub of ice cream and four spoons and said, "C'mon. Ellie says that food is always the best way to show people you're gonna miss them." And they went down to the station and spent a good hour and a half distracting their parents from their work and dripping ice cream on Dad's couch. 

On the way home that night, Chloe said, "I think Ellie looks at Alec the same way she looks at Mum." And Daisy said, "Yeah. He looks at your Mums like that too." And Chloe stopped. "What, both of them?" Daisy nodded. "They're wedding was the happiest I've seen Dad since… well, before Sandbrook." They walked quietly together back towards the Latimer/Miller house for awhile. Then Chloe stopped again. "I have an idea." 

It took them ages to set the plan into motion and really, it wasn't until Tom told them what he knew that it really fell into place properly. Even then they didn't know it was actually working until their acceptance letters came and they woke up half the town with the sheer excitement of it all. 

After the party, Daisy sat Dad down and just said it. "Will you be okay when I leave?" Dad looked at her, a sad smile on his face, but still happier than she'd seen in years and said, "Sweetheart, I'm going to miss you so much. But I should be the one that worries about you. Not the other way round. And listen. This is Home now. Beth and Ellie won't let me starve. You just look after yourself and Chloe and maybe come visit yer ol' Dad on breaks if you're not having too much fun." That was enough for Daisy.

The next thing she knew they were hugging their families goodbye outside a dorm. Then it was studies and parties and clubs and it was a full month before Daisy first got properly homesick and realized she had left her grandmother's quilt at home and for the first time in ages, all she wanted was to wrap herself up in it. So she texted Chloe and let her know she was going home to get it and did she want Daisy to pick anything up from her Mums' place, bought a train ticket, and got a cab home. Beth's car was in the driveway down the hill and when the cab dropped her off, she noted Dad's car wasn't home as she waved the cabbie off. Maybe he and Ellie had a case and Daisy would be able to nip in and back out without having to explain or talk about feelings or otherwise stay long enough to have her miss class next week. She opened the front door and made to slip down the hall and grab the quilt out of her hope chest when she saw the broken glass. 

It was shattered, bits of glass stained with a thick red liquid. Daisy's heart plummeted into her shoes. There, facedown in the middle of the living room floor covered in what looked like blood, was Dad. "Daddy?" She took a tentative step into the room and watched herself feel for a pulse. "Daddy, wake up! Please wake up." It felt like she was screaming it, but she couldn't hear herself. Either way he didn't answer and she wasn't sure if she found a pulse or if her heart was pounding too hard or- Beth. Beth was down the hill.

Daisy tore herself away from her dad and ran down the hill screaming for Beth. Beth came running out the back door and took her face in her hands and maybe asked what was wrong, but Daisy couldn't really hear her over the roaring in her ears. Daddy had a heart attack, I thought he was better, what if he's dead, I just wanted a blanket, what if he's- 

"DAISY!" Beth finally got her attention and only when Daisy stopped talking did she realize she had actually said all of that out loud. Beth took her hand and ran up the hill with her. Beth insisted that she go first just in case and it felt like a million years before Beth called her in the house. "It's cough syrup, sweetheart. He's just out cold. Run down to the house and bring the car up. We'll follow the ambulance when it gets here." Daisy nodded and numbly did as she was told. She kind of floated through the next couple hours, blankly watching the paramedics, then the doctors, then Beth again as they loaded her completely delirious dad into the backseat of Beth's car. She was vaguely aware that they were back down the hill and Beth was talking her through helping Dad through the house...

"Can you get the door Dear? Thanks. Here, guide his head…" Beth's calm voice broke through the rising panic and talked her all the way through getting Daddy into bed and making tea until finally he was all squared away and Daisy was left shaking in the doorway to the master bedroom. He was so pale… what if he'd… what of she hadn't….

Then Beth pulled her into a hug and Daisy broke down right there. She cried hard into her shoulder for what seemed to be a million years. A car door slammed. Then the front door slammed open. Ellie Miller stomped into the front room with a look of absolute terror on her face and stopped cold when she saw them. Beth lifted her hand from Daisy's back and Ellie's face clouded over and she went and started banging around in the kitchen. Beth guided her to the big plush couch and gently told her she was going to check on her dad again. Then Ellie was there and pressing a hot cup of tea into her hand and asked how she was holding up.

Daisy shook her head and felt her face crumple again and Ellie swooped forward and took the cup out of her hands before she dropped it and pulled her into another hug as Daisy hiccupped her way through how she found Daddy and she was so scared and Beth said it was only cough syrup and-

"Shh darling, it's alright. Beth's got him all squared away. Would you like to lie down?" Daisy shook her head. "Okay. When Beth comes back I'll go check on him, okay? You were really brave sweetheart." 

Daisy didn't feel brave. 

The rest of it was all a blur. Somehow she got invited to Mark and Paul's for the weekend with the kids while Daddy rested up and they could come back and check on him on Monday and then Beth had a bag for her in the back of the car and Ellie was dropping them at the station and telling Tom he'd better keep her close until Mark picked them up. 

Then they were at Mark and Paul's flat and Daisy still wasn't entirely sure how she got there but then Chloe walked in and everything was just a little bit better. Then Dad finally called and the second she heard his voice, all of a sudden everything was Crystal clear and she was livid. 

"I thought you were dead! What were you thinking? You have a heart condition! You promised before I left that you wouldn't be alone if you needed help and there you were!" And she went on and on until she broke down crying again and didn't stop until she heard Daddy say in a kind of broken voice, "I'm so sorry, Darlin'. I thought it was just a cold. But you're right. You're completely right..." and talked in that quiet brogue of his until she came back to Earth. "The mums say you're coming back down Monday, right?" Daisy nodded and then realized he couldn't see her and whispered "yeah" "Good. I will be here when you come back. I promise, Darlin'." 

"You promise?" 

"Yes, baby. I promise. I'm in good hands." 

And finally, Daisy thought, everything would be okay. 

She let Paul help her email her professors and Mark made Mac and cheese and they all watched telly on the couch and tried their best to keep Daisy's mind off of her dad and somewhere in all of it she realized- this was what having a real family was like. 

Dad looked miserable when they all walked in the door on Monday and found him bundled up on the couch with tissues and tea and a humidifier and all the trimmings. Daisy had never been so happy to see him in her life. She gave him a massive hug and felt her cheeks get hot and tears prick her eyes again when he said he was sorry in person and she said, "Don't you dare scare me like that ever again." 

"Promise." 

And even though Dad absolutely hated when people made a fuss over him, he seemed to have resigned himself to his fate and let Beth take his temperature and let all the kids pile on him for a snuggle in front of the telly it was without a doubt, the best night Daisy'd had in a very long time. 

They all stayed over for the whole week. Daisy thought it was because Ellie and Beth want to be able to keep an eye on all of them. Chloe said it was cuz she saw Ellie kiss Dad's cheek one night and that probably meant their schemes had paid off and it meant they were all officially family. Daisy didn't tell her exactly how much that meant to her.

Beth and Ellie pulled Daisy aside before they went back to school and solemnly swore they would make sure her dad never scared her like that ever again. And it wasn't a question, but it felt like they were asking permission to love him too. Daisy hugged both of them tight and it felt like she'd just handed over the keys to her Dad's heart to the only people in the world that it could really be trusted to.

  
  
~Fin~

  



End file.
